Saturday, December 09, 2006

DangerousNews: "In Russia the first evidence has appeared of a half mythical creature which sucks blood from animals, even large ones.

Abroad it is known under the name Chupacabra. No one knows for certain what it looks like, but in 2005 a farmer in Texas caught in a trap something looking like a cross between a bald dog, a rat and a kangaroo, which was sucking blood out of his chickens and turkeys.

And now a mystery bloodsucker has appeared around Orenburg. The worries began at the end of March 2005 not far from the regional centre of Saraktash. On the Sapreka farm two farming families suddenly lost 32 turkeys. The bodies of the birds, found in the morning, had been completely drained of blood. None of the farmers either saw or heard the beast that killed them."

Like any good salesperson, Upton is always looking for new ways to attract customers. Recently, she struck upon what she thinks is some tantalizing bait — at least when it comes to police officers.

Instead of a free toaster, TV or a stay at a luxury hotel, Upton, of Realty Associates, is offering officers a free Glock pistol with any home purchase of at least $150,000.

'It's attracted a lot of attention,' she said of her ads in Badge & Gun, the monthly publication of the Houston Police Officers' Union. She said she came up with the idea with help from Blue Cat Creative Consulting and Design.

Upton has given away two Glocks. 'So (the ad) has already paid for itself,' she said. But not all of her law enforcement customers have been interested in another gun.

'So I just give a $500 American Express gift check,' said Upton, whose husband, officer Randy Upton, is a 15-year Houston police veteran."

Entertainment Weekly's EW.com | Feature: Stephen King's top music picks for 2006: Stephen King says: "Between Chuck Berry and Nirvana, I had a passionate 40-year love affair with the kind of music my mother called ''hard swing.'' I fell out of touch for a while, during that time when all the pop singers on the radio — female as well as male — had started to sound like Michael Jackson, and guitars were banished in favor of synthesizers.

What brought me back were two radical innovations: satellite radio (my brand happens to be XM) and iTunes (also my iPod, but for me that came later still). These were digital honky-tonks where I found — to my joy — that hard swing was alive and well. I've been listening, usually with the volume turned up to 11, ever since. These are the tracks that moved me in 2006...quite often enough to get up and shake my increasingly elderly ass."

Stephen King and I don't have the same musical tastes, but this year he has some great items on his list. I particularly recommend "Snake Farm" by Ray Wylie Hubbard, my favorite song of the year.

The word - if one can call it that - best summed up 2006, according to an online survey by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster.

``Truthiness'' was credited to Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, who defined it as ``truth that comes from the gut, not books.''

``We're at a point where what constitutes truth is a question on a lot of people's minds, and truth has become up for grabs,'' said Merriam-Webster president John Morse. ```Truthiness' is a playful way for us to think about a very important issue.''

Other Top 10 finishers included ``war,'' ``insurgent,'' ``sectarian'' and ``corruption.'' But ``truthiness'' won by a 5-to-1 margin, Morse said."

MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY - McCONAUGHEY TOPS PARTY PEOPLE POLL: "MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY has stunned Hollywood by beating PARIS HILTON to the top of a new party animals poll. MCConaughey, dubbed The Life Of The Party, is the unlikely choice to lead In Touch magazine's new Hollywood's Biggest Party Animals list. Editors insist the SAHARA star has 'perfected sexy socialising'. Party girl Hilton, nicknamed The Social Secretary by the US magazine, comes in second, while Irish wildman COLIN FARRELL's rehab stint last Christmas (05) hasn't kept him from enjoying life in 2006 - he makes the list at number three. "

But you don't know the story of this Rudolph — a 5-inch-high little guy made of wood, wool and wire. Once a star, then forgotten for decades, he's making an unusual comeback starting today at Atlanta's Center for Puppetry Arts.

The Rudolph scheduled to go on display at the center today is the well-known figure used in making the 42-year-old animated TV special 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,' which airs at 8 tonight on CBS. The Santa puppet from the same show will join his lead reindeer at the center."

Thursday, December 07, 2006

I watched the 1931 "pre-code" version of Waterloo Bridge on TCM the other night. (The movie was remade around 1940 with Robert Taylor and Vivien Leigh; it was made again 1956 with Leslie Caron and John Kerr. I've never seen those versions.) I thought that because the movie was pre-code, it might be pretty racy. I was wrong. Sure Mae Clark plays a prostitute, and the movie is pretty frank, for the time, about her profession. But that's it. No nudity, no actual immoral acts, and *SPOILER ALERT* Mae certainly gets punished for her sins. In fact, to me, at least, the punishment came more or less abruptly out of left field, just as it would have in a movie after the Production Code was created *END SPOILER ALERT*.

Mae Clark's performance is wonderful. I've seen her in is the famous "grapefruit scene" with Cagney in The Public Enemy and in Frankenstein but she later was doing things like the great Republic serial King of the Rocketmen. She proves here that she could've been a contender. Hell, she was a contender. I guess she never got another role like this one.

Kent Douglass plays the naive young soldier who falls for Mae without ever figuring out her profession, and he's also good. He's believable in a role that's hard to believe in, in these more enlightened times.I enjoyed the performance of Frederick Kerr as Douglass' hearing-impaired stepfather, and seeing Bette Davis in a small role was a treat.

The movie was directed by James Whale, who's better known as the director of a couple of Universal horror classics. The B&W photography is beautiful. I don't usually watch movies like this one, but I'm glad I took the time for Waterloo Bridge.

Newsletter of Ramble House, publisher of Harry Stephen Keeler and other loons, produced by Fender Tucker (fendertucker@sport.rr.com), mailed whenever something happens. To be removed from this list, please respond to this message and ask, or go to the RH website and unsubscribe. Fender Tucker, 443 Gladstone Blvd. Shreveport LA 71104, 318-868-8727.

The headlines:

~ Gwine to Colorado

~ Many New Titles at Lulu.com

~ Marblehead: A Novel of H.P. Lovecraft by Richard A. Lupoff

~ The Ramble House Lulu Store is Open

And now, the details:

~ I am planning on driving this Saturday to Pagosa Springs Colorado where I'll visit some friends and my brother, John, who is in the States for a while. He lives in Thailand and I haven't seen him in years. I'll have access to a computer so I can check e-mail and process orders for books with Lulu.com -- but then, so can anyone. I'll be back in Shreveport the following weekend.

THE SKULL IN THE BOX by Harry Stephen Keeler. Our best deal yet. All four novels of the series in one volume. THE MAN WITH THE MAGIC EARDRUMS, THE MAN WITH THE CRIMSON BOX, THE MAN WITH THE WOODEN SPECTACLES, and THE CASE OF THE LAVENDER GRIPSACK. $25 in trade paperback. A huge collection of Keeler words and one of the most amazing courtroom trials ever.

GREY SHAPES by Jack Mann. The werewolf novel of the Gees series.

DR. SCARLETT by Alexander Laing. A terrific medical adventure thriller set in the Tibetan jungles.

NIGHT OF HORROR a collection of short stories by Joel Townsley Rogers, edited and introduced by Barry Warren. This is the first collection of stories by the author of THE RED RIGHT HAND ever published.

DOPE TALES #1 the first in a new series by Ramble House. It's a double book with two classic tales of drugs and murder from the 30s: DOPE RUNNERS by Gerald Grantham and DEATH TAKES THE JOYSTICK by Phillip Conde. As often as we can we plan to bring back two enjoyable dope novels from the days when our grandparents were doing all the snorting and puffing -- and I'm not talking about the 60s. Both novels are available separately, but you'll like the price and cover of the exciting new DOPE TALES series.

~ But the piece de resistance of 2006 is the brand new mainstream novel by Richard A. Lupoff, whom we are privileged to publish -- MARBLEHEAD: A Novel of H.P. Lovecraft. It's a huge chronicle of the year 1927 in the life of the budding author, H.P. Lovecraft, as he tries to get published and is both aided and thwarted by proto-Nazis, mafiosa, other authors of the day, anarchists and his lovely wife, Sonia. Lupoff has done extensive research into the Providence/Boston area of the time and into Lovecraft's life and has written previously about him. This is a major new novel and you can place an order for it with me immediately. If you catch me before I leave this Saturday, you may even get it by Christmas. It has a mapback cover by Gavin O'Keefe. $24

~ The best way to keep up with our new titles is to bookmark the Ramble House Lulu store and visit often. I always put new books on the first page of the store, near the top of the page. It's easy to find the store; just click here.

Tom Waits: Biographical Details Thomas Alan Waits was born on the eighth anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He was born on December 7, 1949 in Pomona, California. He and his two sisters grew up moving around from city to city in California. His parents who are both school teachers divorced when he was 10. They then moved to National City. Tom's grandfather was christened Jesse Frank Waits and his father Frank Waits. Tom is Scottish and Irish from his father's side of the family and Norwegian from his mother's side.

I've been a fan of Tom Waits since the days of Fernwood2Nite. Hard to believe that was 30 years ago. Anyway, if you haven't heard any of Waits' work, you're missing something different from pretty much anything else out there. There's a new box set called Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards. Check it out.

Popcorn Junkies: Another 80s Classic Gets The Remake Treatment: "If there was any doubt that the 80s were back in vogue, look no further than the news that Short Circuit will soon be remade. After years of trying to get Short Circuit 3 made, it looks as if the folks with the rights to Johnny 5 will instead do a remake. It also looks as if some of the original group involved in the first film will be involved in the remake as well. One person who definitely will not be involved in the remake is the film's director, John Badham."

The five-meter long reptile, suspected of eating a 59-year-old fisherman last seen a week ago near a river in East Nusa Tenggara province, was hacked open by residents after it got caught Monday in a nylon snare, The Jakarta Post said.

When the villagers got over the shock of finding human body parts inside its abdomen -- together with skull fragments, strands of hair and a pair of shorts -- they cut the beast into pieces and divided up the meat.

It was unclear how many people the crocodile had eaten, but the paper said at least three have disappeared in recent months, all while fishing at the mouth of the Dusan II River."

At the same time, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has recovered less than 1 percent of the $1 billion it wasted on fraudulent hurricane assistance after the August 2005 storm, highlighting a need for stronger controls the next time a major hurricane strikes.

The report by the Government Accountability Office, set to be released later Wednesday, paints a picture of an agency still struggling - at substantial taxpayer expense - to find the balance between distributing quick aid to those in need while guarding against substantial abuse."

Dave Brubeck, 86 today. I saw his quartet in concert long, long ago, when he had a song called "Take Five" on the charts. That was the first jazz recording to sell a million copies, I think, and the melody's still haunting today.

The hotel heiress - who has been introducing Britney to the Los Angeles party circuit since she split from husband Kevin Federline - has become broody after helping look after the singer’s two sons, 15-month-old Sean Preston and three-month-old Jayden James.

Paris is convinced she would be a good mother because she has so many pets.

Paris told Life and Style Weekly magazine: “It’s been my dream to have four babies by 30. I look after animals, so I’d have a lot to give my kids.”"

The Diet Coke and Mentos guys are at it again. This one is their masterpiece (so far), and if you watch the video all the way through and wait a second, they issue a challenge to anyone wanting to create a video fountain. It's a contest you might want to consider.

And of course I'm linking to this because my contribution is mentioned in the review.

Small Treasures - December 6, 2006 - The New York Sun: "A bit of an oddity is 'Mystery Muses' (Crum Creek Press, 212 pages, $15.00), edited by Jim Huang and Austin Lugar. The entire book is devoted to the ubiquitous question asked in every interview with a mystery writer: Was there a mystery story that influenced you to become a writer or to write the way you do today? One hundred crime writers answer in these pages."

There are a lot of e-zines that have new issues lately. Here's another one to check out. There's even a download of "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar."

Our authors this month are Charles Schaeffer, Steve Haberlin, Jan Christensen, Nicole Alexander, Peggy Ehrhart, Stephen D. Rogers, Dan Devine and Jeremy Schneider. You can read more about all these authors in the Rogues' Gallery on the Crime and Suspense website. Almost everyone in the list is making their Crime and Suspense ezine debut in this issue, too!

James Lee Burke - About the Author: "James Lee Burke was born in Houston, Texas, in 1936 and grew up on the Texas-Louisiana gulf coast. He attended Southwestern Louisiana Institute and later received a B. A. Degree in English and an M. A. from the University of Missouri in 1958 and 1960 respectively. Over the years he worked as a landman for Sinclair Oil Company, pipeliner, land surveyor, newspaper reporter, college English professor, social worker on Skid Row in Los Angeles, clerk for the Louisiana Employment Service, and instructor in the U. S. Job Corps."

Top 10 Most Annoying Pop Songs 2006: "Successful pop music is not always good pop music. Many of us know that intuitively, but it doesn't really sink in until there is a particular song we wish would go away. Here are 10 that I have chosen (with the indispensable assistance of Daniel Wolfe) as the songs I think we've heard enough times already. Without further adieu...the 10 most annoying pop songs of 2006:1) Paris Hilton - Stars Are Blind

The only justification for this song's presence on pop radio in the summer of 2006 that I heard was that it didn't turn out as badly as expected. That is no reason to turn a song into a hit. Thankfully, it seems that Paris Hilton has moved on from her dreams of being a pop star. She has moved on to befriending the post-K-Fed Britney Spears."

MSNBC: The panty-eschewing singer [Britney Spears] has been pole-dancing with her new best friend, Paris Hilton, who has been giving her private striptease lessons, according to U.K. reports. The two have reportedly been practicing on a stripper pole in Hilton’s Hollywood house.

“Paris took Britney upstairs where she fitted her in a blue tutu, and then Paris put on a matching tutu,” a source told the London Star. “They then went downstairs and danced at Paris’ in-house stripper pole. Britney loves her new moves and can’t wait to get a fella and test them out.”

Monday, December 04, 2006

The Secret Life Of An Online Book Reviewer - Forbes.com: "Over the last seven years, Donald Mitchell, a 60-year-old strategy consultant in Boston, has made $20,000 writing book reviews on Amazon.com. He's so good, and so prolific--with 2,923 reviews to date--that Amazon customers have consistently voted him among the top five reviewers on the site. (The top reviewer, a former librarian from Pennsylvania named Harriet Klausner, has reviewed 12,753 books. Skeptics doubt that she actually exists.)

Mitchell is part of an online subculture that has helped democratize the reviewing process and cemented Amazon's (nasdaq: AMZN - news - people ) significance in the publishing world. Oprah Winfrey and the New York Times can elevate an obscure debut novelist to a best seller, but Amazon provides the shortest path between a good review and an actual sale: The two are just a click away."

Kat Richardson was on a panel I moderated at the Bouchercon. Greywalker, her first novel, had just been published, and there were only a few copies available at the convention. I bought one of them just before they sold out.

Greywalker is the story of a private-eye named Harper Blaine. When she's assaulted, she suffers a severe head injury and "dies" for two minutes. After she recovers, she finds that she has the ability to enter "the grey," a sort of half-world between life and death. There are lots of strange things in there, and the adjustment isn't an easy one, which is one of the things I liked about the book. Unlike a lot of fictional characters in similar situations, Blaine doesn't immediately figure out what's going on and make the most of it. She fights it, and she's still fighting it when the book ends (though you can bet she'll be back and have a lot more to do with the grey before the intended series runs its course).

This first novel involves a missing person, vampires, an antique parlor organ, an Irish witch, and of course "the grey." There's enough action to satisfy just about anybody, along with some humor, and Blaine's first-person narration moves the story along at a good clip. Sure, Richardson is mining some of the same territory staked out by the likes of Jim Butcher, Kim Harrison, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Charlaine Harris, to name a few, but she has her own original take, and it's worth a look. Check it out.

YesButNoButYes: The Hottest Alien Babes of Film and TV: "There’s nothing like a good sci-fi flick to really capture a guy’s attention. The spaceships…the laser guns…. the distant worlds full of adventure…and those saucy alien chicks in miniskirts whose morals seem looser than William Shatner’s toupee.

But golly gee, there’s so much alien hotness to choose from. How do you decide which babe with green skin is worth your time? Well rest easy fellow space traveler, I’ve done the hard work for you. Allow me to present you with a list guaranteed to appeal to the Buck Rogers in all of us."

The 1998 Coen brothers film has such a rabid underground following that it's managed to inspire an online Church of the Latter-Day Dude, a speaking tour featuring Jeff 'the Dude' Dowd (the independent film consultant credited with inspiring the film's main character), an online petition calling for Jeff Bridges (the film's star) to run for president in 2008, and, oh yeah, a drinking game.

But perhaps the greatest display of obsessive behavior from Lebowski lovers is Lebowski Fest. A multiple-day event where fans come together across the country to pay homage to the object of their cinematic affection."

While their parents shell out $33,246 a year in tuition, Columbia University students attend naked parties, flock to sex-toys workshops, broadcast porn on campus TV, bake anatomically correct pies for the 'Erotic Cake-Baking Contest' and heat up the library steps in a mass makeout session.

And, of course, there's always the stimulating game Guess the Number of Condoms in the Jelly-Bean Jar.

Others volunteer for the bullwhip at Conversio Virium, the university-sanctioned S&M club. It calls itself a 'discussion group' that provides 'education and peer support' and promotes 'safe, sane and consensual play.' But the club doesn't just talk.

Late on the night of Nov. 13, a Daily News reporter sat in Room 303 of Hamilton Hall, a venerable classroom building where Columbia students have studied Poe, Plato and Plutarch for nearly 100 years.

As a female student volunteer stood facing the blackboard, and 24 Columbians watched, a lecturer who identified himself only as Dov flogged her with whips, rubber hoses and a cat-o'-nine-tails. "

People News: A source told the New York Post newspaper: "Britney and Brandon were getting along really well. They even went to the bathroom together."

The two 25-year-olds were first seen on a dinner date together in Los Angeles last Thursday (30.11.06).

Oil heir Brandon was close friends with Britney's new best friend Paris Hilton.However, Paris and Brandon are no longer on speaking terms after their friendship and rumoured romance came to a bitter end earlier this year.

Brandon recently branded Paris a racist, saying she was forever referring to black people as "n*****s".

He said: "She is a racist, plus an idiot. I don't want anything to do with her. I don't need anything from her. She is no longer my friend. She is just not a nice person."

Lots more at the link. This is the New York Times, so you have to be registered to read it.

Ask the Parrot By Richard Stark - Books - Review - New York Times: "In 1997, Donald E. Westlake — whose prodigious versatility in crime fiction makes the competition look like plow hands — dusted off his literary pseudonym Richard Stark and defrosted his antihero Parker for a knuckle sandwich aptly titled “Comeback.” It had been nearly a quarter-century since the last Parker outing (“Butcher’s Moon,” published back when Gerald Ford was president), but if any hood could survive literary limbo that long in the meat locker, it was this ageless, unnervable, packed-solid, viciously adaptable commando, whose presence is stamped on the page with an abstract force."

One one the longer-lasting mystery e-zines. Here's the link and the short-story line-up. Check it out.

Mysterical-E:"Sometimes Boring is Good by Jan ChristensenEasy Mark J. Alan BrownBones of Contention by Charles SchaefferIn The Garden of the Gods by Fleur BradleyKrung Thep by Scott RobinsonMajestic-12 by Gay Toltl KinmanPoochie's Progress by Luc BeauboisThe Perfect Gift by Suzanne Berube RorhusRepaid Debts by Sandra SeamansThe Root of the Matter by Bob LiterA Signature in Blood by Annette DashofySmall Town Secrets by Pam SkochinskiStranger in Town by Jonette StabbertCriminal Conundrum by Daniel B. YoungWhen It Went Wrong by Patrick Reed"

Here's the latest cover. Robert Terrall is 92 and still with us. I have this book in the old Dell printing, but you can be sure I'll bet the Hard Case edition. After all, I'm a subscriber. You can see a lot of the new covers here. Check 'em out.

'It is my understanding that some satirical references ridiculed some of her peers,' her spokesman, Elliot Mintz, said in a statement. 'Paris did not want to say anything that could appear hurtful or embarassing about people she knows.'

Mintz said Hilton received a script Friday that contained material she found 'objectionable.' Representatives for Hilton and the awards show could not come to an agreement about the script's content so she decided to scrap the appearance, he said."